Landis never contacted to defend against UCI defamation suit

Landis never contacted to defend against UCI defamation suit

Floyd Landis in 2006 giving a press conference after testing positive in the Tour de France

(AFP Photo)

The host with the most, Mr. Floyd Landis

(Marco Quezada/nyvelocity.com)

Floyd Landis tries to break away in the final kilometres

(Pete Bruggeman)

The UCI today declared that a ruling in its favour in a defamation suit against Floyd Landis "upholds and protects the integrity of the UCI and its Presidents", but the American's lawyer claims that Landis was never given a chance to defend himself.

Landis's lawyer, Leo Cunningham of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, told ESPN.com today that the judgement by default issued by the Swiss civil court, which upheld the filing made by Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen, was "unenforceable".

"Floyd was never served with the UCI's Swiss lawsuit, never appeared in Switzerland on the case, and therefore the Swiss Court had no opportunity to hear Floyd on the issues," Cunningham wrote to ESPN.

"The order is un-American in every sense of that word. It is inconsistent with American law, it flies in the face of our First Amendment, and it would be unenforceable in American courts. It does not affect Floyd's status under American law in any way."

The cease and desist order prohibits Landis from making allegations against the UCI that they "concealed cases of doping, received money for doing so, have accepted money from Lance Armstrong to conceal a doping case, have protected certain racing cyclists, concealed cases of doping, have engaged in manipulation, particularly of tests and races," and more.

It also prohibits Landis from calling the UCI "full of shit", "clowns" and "liars", and orders him to pay damages of 10,000 Swiss francs each to McQuaid and Verbruggen, plus 4,600 each in court costs.